“I have an urgent mat­ter to attend to,” my son David declared con­fi­dent­ly, sur­pris­ing his col­leagues as he excused him­self from a crit­i­cal board meet­ing. What was his urgent mat­ter? Kenya’s icon­ic Safari Ral­ly. I smiled, not out of sur­prise but recog­ni­tion, see­ing myself vivid­ly reflect­ed in his excite­ment. Years ago, my life paused when­ev­er ral­ly leg­end Col­in McRae’s pow­er­ful Sub­aru Impreza roared past, fill­ing my heart with unmatched thrill. Unknow­ing­ly, I had plant­ed a seed of enthu­si­asm that now blooms pas­sion­ate­ly with­in David, and count­less Kenyans, draw­ing them away from their dai­ly rou­tines and unit­ing diverse groups in cel­e­bra­tion of this beloved motor­sport tradition.

The Safari Ral­ly rep­re­sents much more than just motor­sports. It embod­ies Kenya’s cul­tur­al her­itage and serves as an inter­na­tion­al sym­bol of deter­mi­na­tion and sport­ing excel­lence. Estab­lished in 1953 and orig­i­nal­ly cov­er­ing near­ly 5,000 kilo­me­ters across Kenya, Ugan­da, and Tan­za­nia, its leg­endary dif­fi­cul­ty earned it the title of “the world’s tough­est ral­ly,” cap­ti­vat­ing mil­lions around the globe and sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhanc­ing Kenya’s glob­al profile.

Despite its cel­e­brat­ed sta­tus, cur­rent chal­lenges cast a shad­ow over the future of East Africa’s beloved tra­di­tion. Lead­er­ship insta­bil­i­ty, ques­tion­able finan­cial prac­tices, and oper­a­tional mishaps have com­pro­mised the ral­ly’s cred­i­bil­i­ty. Respect­ed fig­ures such as Patrick Njiru have pub­licly voiced con­cerns regard­ing trans­paren­cy, while media orga­ni­za­tions protest unful­filled finan­cial com­mit­ments. More­over, cred­i­ble reports sug­gest sig­nif­i­cant unpaid oblig­a­tions to crit­i­cal part­ners and sponsors.

Ignor­ing these man­age­ment issues pos­es a severe threat to the rally’s immense eco­nom­ic poten­tial. His­tor­i­cal­ly, the Safari Ral­ly has been an eco­nom­ic pow­er­house, inject­ing bil­lions into Kenya’s econ­o­my, notably con­tribut­ing KSh 38 bil­lion in 2021 and draw­ing over 100,000 spec­ta­tors. The ral­ly sig­nif­i­cant­ly boosts local busi­ness­es, stim­u­lates tourism, and revi­tal­izes region­al economies. Con­tin­ued mis­man­age­ment endan­gers these crit­i­cal eco­nom­ic benefits.

Equal­ly vital is the ral­ly’s role in inspir­ing uni­ty and pas­sion among Kenyan youth and broad­er com­mu­ni­ties. Ral­ly heroes such as Jogin­der Singh and glob­al icons like Col­in McRae have ignit­ed dreams, nur­tur­ing val­ues like resilience, dis­ci­pline, and team­work through the years. Today, this ral­ly spir­it con­tin­ues to bring togeth­er com­mu­ni­ties from diverse back­grounds, tran­scend­ing bar­ri­ers and fos­ter­ing nation­al unity.

The good news is that the 2025 Safari Ral­ly intro­duced inno­v­a­tive changes, such as the thrilling Mzabibu stage at Moren­dat Farm vine­yards, reju­ve­nat­ing pub­lic inter­est. How­ev­er, we can­not allow these promis­ing devel­op­ments to mask sig­nif­i­cant weak­ness­es that require imme­di­ate action.

To restore and safe­guard the Safari Ral­ly’s lega­cy, I pro­pose five prac­ti­cal rec­om­men­da­tions. First, imple­ment­ing strict finan­cial trans­paren­cy and account­abil­i­ty must become a pri­or­i­ty. Sec­ond, select­ing lead­er­ship based on proven integri­ty, com­pe­tence, and ded­i­ca­tion is crit­i­cal to achiev­ing last­ing sta­bil­i­ty. Third, enhanc­ing con­sis­tent, trans­par­ent com­mu­ni­ca­tion with all stake­hold­ers, includ­ing media, spon­sors, dri­vers, and local com­mu­ni­ties. This is essen­tial for rebuild­ing trust. Fourth, inte­grat­ing envi­ron­men­tal­ly sus­tain­able prac­tices, such as elec­tric or hybrid vehi­cles and improved waste man­age­ment, would posi­tion the ral­ly with­in glob­al sus­tain­abil­i­ty stan­dards. Final­ly, a delib­er­ate strat­e­gy of active­ly involv­ing local com­mu­ni­ties in plan­ning and shar­ing eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits would ensure con­tin­ued grass­roots sup­port and last­ing com­mu­ni­ty engagement.

As renowned ral­ly dri­ver Patrick Njiru wise­ly reminds us, “We can­not allow inter­nal dis­putes to under­mine what gen­er­a­tions of Kenyans have proud­ly built. The Safari Ral­ly belongs to us all, and its lega­cy demands vig­i­lant protection.”

Today, we find our­selves at a piv­otal moment. Our actions, or inac­tion, will deter­mine the rally’s future. Restor­ing the Safari Ral­ly’s esteemed sta­tus is not mere­ly about motor­sport pres­tige; it involves reclaim­ing our her­itage, fos­ter­ing eco­nom­ic vital­i­ty, cham­pi­oning envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ty, and inspir­ing the dreams of our youth.

Let us coura­geous­ly embrace these chal­lenges to pre­serve and enhance the Safari Ral­ly for David, for our youth, and future gen­er­a­tions. Our young peo­ple are authen­tic and qual­i­ty ‑con­scious, they have no patience with events and insti­tu­tions that don’t live up to their promis­es. And so, the time to act to save the Safari Ral­ly is now. Think green, act green!